Casino Point - Sat, Sept. 24?

[Mo2vation]

I just wanted to say a big "Thank You" to all of the great folks I met today out at Casino Point. You guys are awesome! I had a great time getting my introduction to Kelp diving. Hopefully we can do it again in the near future.

Great hanging out and diving. Lunch was great, but I was humbled by the chick's mountain o' Nachos.

Nice octo and moray and sheepy and stuff. Good day. Glad you guys made it back to the boat on time!

Lexy's save a dive kit is shaping up quite nicely, and soon she'll have a full on dry box. She fixed her reg and everything yesterday... a fine job.

I gotta once again hand it to Zip Seals. Tore my neck seal (it was gonna go any day...) and in about 5 minutes I snapped in my spare and was in the water. I love these things.

Great day. Lets do it again soon.

---
Ken

 

[drbill]

Good to see all of you back out at the park. It was my first dive there in a month since I've been boat diving with Scuba Luv during that interval.

Didn't plan on getting down there, but I woke up about 6:00 and started a project. By 8:00 I was making such good progress on it I decided to skip my planned boat dive and head down to the park after I finished.

Conditions were less than optimal (for videotaping). Vis wasn't bad at Noon but declined significantly by the time of my second dive due to current and surge. Still a good day to get wet and see friends! Dive on.

 

[CaptainMarvel]

Ditto on the great time. Had a lot of fun diving and hanging out with everyone. Hope to dive with all of you again soon.

-Scott

 

[Lexy]

Definitely nice diving with ya'll! Thank you for being so patient when I ran into gear troubles + lending a hand too.

Was honestly surprised to encounter strong current at the dive park - that was a new one (at the park) for me.

BTW, fellow divers -> if ya don't have a save-a-dive kit, start putting one together! Amazing how the tools and spare parts were ALL put to use yesterday. Darn o-ring blew on my low pressure inflator hose but didn't keep me from diving.

 

[TeqP]

I had a nice time hanging out with everyone as well. Sorry I had to cut my diving short, but still had a nice time.

Scott - watch out for those steps, they can be slippery! :05:
Lexy - seeing your 'kit' reminded me that I better start piecing one together for myself.
Kara - it might help you get underwater if you put some weights in your BC.
Hope to dive with y'all soon.

 

[Mo2vation]

Definitely nice diving with ya'll! Thank you for being so patient when I ran into gear troubles + lending a hand too.

Was honestly surprised to encounter strong current at the dive park - that was a new one (at the park) for me.

BTW, fellow divers -> if ya don't have a save-a-dive kit, start putting one together! Amazing how the tools and spare parts were ALL put to use yesterday. Darn o-ring blew on my low pressure inflator hose but didn't keep me from diving.

That would be your primary second stage ORing that cracked... but you found the problem, diagnosed it and fixed it. Nice work.

Saw some wacky stuff in the park yesterday - I mean in addition to the usual assortment of rototillers and lawndarts.

These two guys blasted by us diving Inspirations. Its unusual enough to see IRB divers with splits - but both of them were diving ScubaPro twin jets - but here's the thing: one guy had modified his. Significantly cut them down so they were sort of like stubby, floppy jet fin wanna bees with about a 2" split. Really strange.

Saw another guy diving (I use the term diving loosly...more like flopping around on a "safety" stop) with some kind of side mount rig. He had two very large tanks - like LP120's or something. Nitrox banded, an ABS back plate, a Pioneer-style doughnut wing and these two tanks sort of flopping around, one on each side. Slung sort of like loose stages (from the neck) and kinda swinging a bit - but not under his arms... sort of from the side rails of the ABS plate. Like JATO bottles or something. Looked a little like rocket packs. Very strange

Lots of doubles yesterday. At least 4 divers. One crew had 3 divers. 2 of them still had the boots on their double SP black tanks. That was a bit odd - seeing doubles with tank boots.

Maybe it was just me. There was a lot of different stuff out there yesterday.

---
Ken

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I recently put boots back on my doubles after a few years of dealing with them falling while I tried to put them on and take them off. The no boots rule for DIR originally came about because of the Florida cave divers setting up gear on picnic tables and leaving their tanks standing. GI, among others decided that it was safer to remove the boots to make divers lay their tanks down. Later the corrosion under the boots factor was added.

 

[Mo2vation]

I recently put boots back on my doubles after a few years of dealing with them falling while I tried to put them on and take them off. The no boots rule for DIR originally came about because of the Florida cave divers setting up gear on picnic tables and leaving their tanks standing. GI, among others decided that it was safer to remove the boots to make divers lay their tanks down. Later the corrosion under the boots factor was added.

Are the SP black tanks steel or Al? I couldnt tell. Al tanks aren't usually painted are they? I was asking because two of the guys we saw were diving them with wet suits. Kind of unusual in SoCal, I think.

One had his lift bag sort of flapping in the breeze like an un-tucked shirt from the bottom of his Plate. Not sure about the others. FWIW, the "instructor" / videographer (presume instructor...maybe not) of the group was the guy who was diving bootless.

Thanks

Ken

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Steel. It doesn't make a lot of sense having boots on aluminum tanks with their flat bottoms, although that doesn't stop a lot of people from doing it.

 

[drbill]

These two guys blasted by us diving Inspirations. Its unusual enough to see IRB divers with splits - but both of them were diving ScubaPro twin jets - but here's the thing: one guy had modified his. Significantly cut them down so they were sort of like stubby, floppy jet fin wanna bees with about a 2" split. Really strange

I think I know who you were talking about- two of our semi-local techies. I saw them in the park too, but they were going slow when I saw them.